“What truth are you telling me about?”: Gender and political allegory in two Belarusian music videos

Abstract

This article discusses two Belarusian music videos from 2020, “Shchuchynshchyna” and “Ne Smeshno” (“Not Funny”), both of which were framed by their creators as commentary on the 2020 protests. In “Ne Smeshno,” band Molchat Doma seemingly attempts to wake a city stricken by an epidemic of sleep—and fails, with one exception. The parody video “Shchuchynshchyna” debuted in a satirical web series, where Elena ZheludOk’s performance of state-approved pop entrances a rebellious rock guitarist. I discuss these videos through Almira Ousmanova’s work on defamiliarization in Belarusian art and politics and through Lauren Berlant’s thought on the allegory. I argue that both videos engage with the idea that art’s political potential is in its power to undermine the state’s hegemonic version of reality. However, in both videos, this break in perception is a secondary effect of music, a consequence of the new gendered, intimate relations that music directly sets in motion.